An unprecedented decision for an unprecedented situation. Consob has banned short selling on Piazza Affari from today, March 18, and for the next three months to try to contain the repercussions of the coronavirus emergency on the Stock Exchange. Indeed, in the last month alone, the Ftse Mib has lost almost 40% of its value (from 17 February, -39,65% to be precise), dropping from over 25 to 15.159 points.
After the stop imposed in the session of 13 March , historic loss recorded on March 17th, the Supervisory Authority makes an even more peremptory choice and "prohibits any form of bearish speculative operation, also carried out through derivatives or other financial instruments", but also the intraday bearish trades.
"The decision to apply restrictive measures on the entire list, explains the Commission, was taken with the aim of rrestore the integrity of the market, also in light of the exceptional measures on short selling adopted in recent days by ESMA and by the supervisory authorities of Spain, France and Belgium”.
To underline that too the AMF, the French Authority of the financial markets, announced on March 17 the stop for one month of short positions, and therefore of all short selling on the Paris list, starting from 18 March. The AMF "has decided to ban all short positions with immediate effect" reads the press release "from midnight on 18 March until midnight on 16 April". The same decision and the same timing was established on Monday by Spanish Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores.
Returning to Italy, Consob informs that the resolution affects the 48 companies listed on the Borsa Italiana electronic stock market, identified according to a grid of criteria that refers to a capitalization of more than 500 million euros and to the ownership structure (subsidiaries by right are excluded). The new threshold is set at 1% for non-SME companies and 3% for SMEs.
Here is the list of companies for which the obligation of enhanced transparency is in force:
Among non-SMEs, there is an obligation to declare shareholdings exceeding 1% for: A2a, Anima Holding, Assicurazioni Generali, Astm, Atlantia, Azimut, Banca Mediolanum, Banca Popolare di Sondrio, Banco Bpm, Bper, Cerved, Enel, Eni, Finecobank, Hera, Interpump, Intesa Sanpaolo, Iren, Italgas, Italmobiliare, Leonardo, Mediaset, Mediobanca, Moncler, Prysmian, Reply, Saipem, Salini Impregilo, San Lorenzo, Saras, Snam, Società Cattolica di Assicurazione, Telecom Italia, Terna, Unicredit, Ubi Banca, Unipol.
For SMEs, there is an obligation to declare shareholdings exceeding 3% per: Banca Farmafactoring, Carel Industries, Dovalue, El.En, Mutuionline, Igd, Ilimity Bank, Rcs Mediagroup, Tamburi Investment Partners.
